Trader Joe's just start of new stores on 17-92 in Winter Park

The new Trader Joe's grocery taking shape in Winter Park is just the start of a new wave of stores and restaurants along U.S. Highway 17-92, one of the Orlando area's oldest retail corridors.

Developers snapped up $60 million worth of property last year near the site of the specialty grocery store, which is expected to open this summer. Some of the shops scheduled to open this year will compete with retailers along Park Avenue, which is fully leased for the first time in years.

And last week, the new owners of the Kmart plaza at 17-92 and Lee Road announced that they will demolish part of the 1960s-era shopping center and give it a facelift.

"It's like the development community just discovered it," Winter Park Planning and Zoning Manager Jeff Briggs said of the 17-92 area. The latest round of development follows last year's opening of Carmel Café and Wine Bar, Marlow's Tavern and Performance Bicycle.

A Palm Beach investment group bought the 25-acre Kmart center a year ago for $28 million, and it hopes to attract new tenants with a makeover, said Robert Vreeland, leasing director for Sterling Organization.

"One or more new tenants are coming in to replace that existing big-box tenant," Vreeland said of Kmart, which is scheduled to close in mid-March.

No leases have been signed, but prospective tenants include clothing retailers, sporting-goods franchises and a grocer new to the area, Vreeland said.

City and state officials are looking at dusting off old plans to extend Lee Road about a quarter-mile east to Denning Drive. The extension would require the state to buy property now owned by the Orange County School Board, according to a spokesman for the state.

An extension could propel plans for a Whole Foods at the intersection of 17-92 and Lee.

Developers have spray-painted a cluster of dated, one-story office buildings there with the word "demo," which is shorthand for demolition. UP Fieldgate, the group that owns Fashion Square Mall, bought the old office site in October for $3.5 million. Last week it purchased an adjacent property from the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation for $2 million. The additional acreage would be used as part of the site for a 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods, which is under consideration by the city.

The landholder with the largest project at the Lee Road intersection is Ravaudage developer Dan Bellows. He's working on plans for townhomes built by David Weekley in the 80-acre development, which sprawls over parts of Winter Park and Maitland.

"I think there's so much action in that corridor," he said this week. "I think it's all great — whether it goes on my property or somewhere down the road."

At Ravaudage, Unicorp is proceeding with plans for a two-story restaurant affiliated with Tony Roma's. The group bought the $1.8 million site for the restaurant in September and is planning a $6.5 million building for what's being called the Gardens at Ravaudage. Briggs said the city is finalizing permits.

Bellows is not the only developer adding residential space. Winter Park Village announced plans this month for apartments with 204 units that will be priced starting at $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom. The complex is being built on the longtime site of the state Department of Motor Vehicles offices on Denning Drive, a block east of 17-92.

Not even 15 years after bulldozers plowed down the old Winter Park Mall to make way for the open-air village, the vacant Borders bookstore building at the village was torn down. It's being replaced with a Chase branch bank that's expected to be completed in May. Next to the new bank, construction is expected to be completed in February for a building with two new tenants — Starbucks and Versona Accessories.

Competition for bank customers is expected to heat up with the new Chase branch, a new TD Bank being built across the street from Chase and a First Green Bank at the longtime home of Absolute Sound on Minnesota Avenue.

Trader Joe's will be the anchor for Unicorp's new Lakeside Winter Park project. Other tenants that have signed leases there include Scottrade, Jillycakes, Cherry Blow Dry Bar, Shake Shack, Orange Theory Fitness, Marilyn Monroe Spas and Paddleboard Orlando.

Across 17-92 from the Trader Joe's site is the old Best Western motel — at least for now. Unicorp has a contract to purchase it and has plans to demolish it if the city grants approval for a mixed-use project with retail and residences here.

Other casualties of the new projects are both relatively new and decades-old buildings, including one of Orlando's oldest bars. Tom & Jerry's Lounge will be dust by mid-February. Located at Bellows' Ravaudage project, the 70-year-old mainstay had a loyal following, but the building was obsolete was never envisioned to co-exist with new shops, stores and residences, Bellows said.

But, he added, the bar could re-emerge in new space at the development.

Even if the space isn't quite the same, Bellows said he has saved the old neon Tom & Jerry's sign in the hopes of rehanging it.